Servitude and stolen years

Associate Professor Victoria Haskins' study of Indigenous domestic service policies across two countries is filling a gap in the historical narrative.

Discovering a childhood photograph of her grandmother with an Aboriginal nursemaid led to Associate Professor Victoria Haskins unearthing a surprising family link to the Stolen Generations. It also ignited what has become a continuing research interest in the use of enforced domestic service as an
Indigenous regulation strategy.

Haskins, then a history postgraduate, learned that the Aboriginal woman in the picture was one of several assigned by the state to work for her great-grandmother, Joan Kingsley-Strack. The middle-class housewife built a relationship with the women, which led to her becoming an unlikely advocate for
Aboriginal rights and a rare white voice in the 1930s speaking against the removal of children from Indigenous families.

Fortuitously, the late Kingsley-Strack left a comprehensive archive of personal papers, which helped Haskins when writing her doctoral thesis on NSW Aborigines Protection Board domestic service policies viewed through the personal narratives of her great-grandmother and the Indigenous women who worked
for her. Haskins' PhD was published in 2005 under the title One Bright Spot. In researching the thesis, she learned that the forcible removal of Aboriginal girls as young as 11 and 12 for placement as domestic servants in white households was a key policy of various state governments until World War II.

"This is a lesser known but very significant part of the Stolen Generations history," Haskins asserts. "It was a very widespread and gender-specific form of social engineering seen by state governments as an expedient way of dealing with what they regarded as the problem of young Aboriginal girls on
reserves."

A search by Haskins for comparable government assimilation policies in other countries largely drew a blank until she spent time at Harvard University on a visiting fellowship in 2005. While in the US, she found archival evidence of a largely forgotten American scheme called the 'outing', which involved
the placement of Native American girls with white families to work as maids. That discovery laid the foundation of her successful bid for an Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellowship, awarded in 2009, to conduct a transnational study of state intervention and domestic service policies in Australia
and the United States.

"I am looking at a theory that these policies can be understood within the concept of constructing modern nations and establishing a societal hierarchy – that they are about managing relationships between the races in a way that strengthens and legitimises the settler/colonial process," Haskins
outlines. "On a superficial level the idea was one of assimilation but in reality they were strategies of containment and control, not of inclusion."

Haskins this year convened an international symposium in Newcastle titled Domestic Service and Colonisation: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives. In October, she released a book on the outing scheme titled Matrons and Maids: Regulating Indian Domestic Service in Tucson, 1914-1934, the first scholarly book to comprehensively explore this facet of American
race relations.

"I am intrigued by domestic service practices and policies and their impact on race relations," she comments, adding that her research is part of an important shared history between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people that warrants greater discussion and wider acknowledgement. "Part of my role as
an historian is to be a memory custodian, and I feel it is important that these histories are remembered and understood."

Career Summary

Biography

Associate Professor Haskins is co-director of the Purai Global Indigenous and Diaspora Research Studies Centre, and a former ARC Future Fellow (2009-13). As a historian of Indigenous and women's histories, her key research interests are in gender, labour and cross-cultural relationships, with a focus on settler colonialism in Australia and the United States. She has published widely in the area of Indigenous domestic service histories and colonization, and utilizes comparative and transnational approaches to history. In 2013, she was awarded the NSW Centenary of Anzac Commemoration History Fellowship to research the impact of WWI on women in NSW.

Research ExpertiseAs a cultural and social historian, my main field of research interest is the history of cross-cultural relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, incorporating class and gender analyses into my examination of race and colonialism. More broadly, I am also interested in gender/women's histories, Indigenous studies, and domestic labour. Methodologically, I am interested in personal narratives, visual and material culture, and the interactions between popular culture and everyday experience, as well as traditional archival research. I am highly committed to collaborative research with Indigenous historians and the concept of shared histories. I have held a number of major research grants including an ARC Future Fellowship and a current ArtsNSW History Fellowship.

Teaching ExpertiseI teach Australian social, cultural and political history, with a particular focus on cross-cultural histories (between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people) and women's histories. With background professional experience as a history curator, I have also taught and supervised students in museum studies. I currently teach an upper-level capstone History major course on working with primary sources in history.

Administrative ExpertiseI have held various administrative roles and am currently the Deputy Head of School (Teaching & Learning) for the School of Humanities & Social Science, Faculty of Education and Arts.

CollaborationsCo-director of Purai Global Indigenous and Diaspora Research Studies Centre and an associate member of the Umulliko Indigenous Research Institute, Assoc. Prof. Haskins is committed to the principle of collaborative engagement and research with Indigenous communities, colleagues and advisory bodies. She is currently working on a collaborative book project with Professor John Maynard on white people who lived with Aboriginal communities in the nineteenth century, to be published by the National Library of Australia, and another collaborative book project, with colleagues from the University of Wollongong, on transcolonial cultures of domestic service.

Qualifications

PhD, University of Sydney

Bachelor of Arts (Honours), University of Sydney

Keywords

Aboriginal history

Australian history

Colonialism

Cross-cultural history

Dance history

Gender history

Indigenous history (US, Asia)

Museum studies

Women's history

Fields of Research

Code

Description

Percentage

210399

Historical Studies not elsewhere classified

100

Professional Experience

UON Appointment

Title

Organisation / Department

Associate Professor

University of NewcastleSchool of Humanities and Social ScienceAustralia

Academic appointment

Dates

Title

Organisation / Department

1/06/2010 - 1/02/2014

Associate Professor

University of NewcastleResearch Institute for Social Inclusion and WellbeingAustralia

Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS)Australia

1/04/2006 - 1/03/2009

Lecturer

University of NewcastleHumanities & Social Science, FEDUAAustralia

1/01/2006 -

Editorial Board - Australian Feminist Studies

Australian Feminist Studies JournalAustralia

1/06/2005 - 1/09/2005

Visiting Scholar

Harvard UniversityUnited States

1/01/2000 - 1/04/2006

Lecturer in Australian History

Flinders UniversityHistory Australia

1/03/1998 - 1/12/1999

Curator

Program Developer

(Curator)

National Museum of AustraliaDepartment of Australian Social HistoryAustralia

Awards

Recipient

Year

Award

2006

Unions NSW & ASSLH Best Article in Labour History 2005/06Unions NSW, Australian Society for the Study of Labour History (ASSLH) (joint)

2002

Mary Bennett Prize for Best Article on Women's HistoryAustralian Womenâs History Network

Recognition

Year

Award

2011

ARC IntReaderAustralian Research Council

1990

University MedalUniversity of Sydney

Research Award

Year

Award

2010

ARC DiscoveryAustralian Research Council

2009

ARC Future FellowshipAustralian Research Council

2006

ARC DiscoveryAustralian Research Council

2006

Council of State Libraries FellowshipState Library of NSW - Mitchell Library

Invitations

Keynote Speaker

Year

Title / Rationale

2003

No Place for a Lady? Reflections on the curious absence of women from the History WarsOrganisation: The Centre for Public Culture and Ideas, Griffith University
Description:
Keynote address for RHD Conference: Contact Zone, Griffith University, Brisbane

Invited Opening Plenary Chair, Historicizing Whiteness ConferenceOrganisation: University of Melbourne
Description:
Invited Opening Plenary Chair, (Lillian Holt History, Honesty, Whiteness and Blackness and Marilyn Lake, The Discovery of Personal Whiteness is a Very Modern Thing: WEB DuBois on the Global and the Personal) Historicizing Whiteness Conference, The University of Melbourne, 22-24 November 2006

Haskins VK, '"The Matter of Wages Does not Seem to be Material": Native American Domestic Workers' Wages Under the Outing System in the United States, 1880s-1930s', Towards a Global History of Domestic and Caregiving Workers, Brill, Leiden & Boston 323-345 (2015)

Haskins VK, 'Her old Ayah: The transcolonial significance of the Indian domestic worker in India and Australia', Responding to the West: Essays on Colonial Domination and Asian Agency, Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam, Netherlands 103-115 (2009) [B1]

Haskins VK, 'Dancing in the Dust: A Gendered History of Indigenising Australian Cultural Identity', Intersections: Gender, Race and Ethnicity in Australasian Studies, Prestige Books, Sydney, New South Wales 55-75 (2007) [B1]

Haskins V, 'Stolen Generations and Vanishing Indians: The Removal of Indigenous Children as a Weapon of War in the United States and Australia, 1870-1940', Children and War: An Anthology, New York University Presss, New York, New York 227-241 (2002) [B1]

2000

Haskins VK, 'The apprenticing of Aboriginal girls to domestic service in NSW: eugenic preoccupations and the feminist response', Â¿A Race for PlaceÂ¿ Eugenics, Darwinism and Social Thought and Practice in Australia, University of Newcastle, Newcastle 189-194 (2000)

Haskins VK, ''Give to us the people we would love to be amongst us': The Aboriginal campaign against Caroline Bulmer's eviction from Lake Tyers Aboriginal Station, 1913-14', Provenance: The Journal of Public Record Office Victoria, 1-12 (2008) [C1]

2008

Haskins VK, 'Memsahib and missus: Transcolonial constructions of the white mistress in India and Australia', Journal of the Oriental Society of Australia, 39/40 221-235 (2008) [C1]

2007

Haskins VK, 'Review of In Living Memory, State Records Gallery', History Australia, 4 18.1-18.3 (2007) [C3]

Haskins V, 'Fear the bitch who sheds no tears: The cultural depiction of the white female scapegoat in Australian historical drama', Lilith: a feminist history journal, 12 50-64 (2003) [C1]

2003

Haskins V, ''Could you see to the return of my Daughter': Fathers and daughters under the New South Wales Aborigines protection board child removal policy', Australian Historical Studies, 34 106-121 (2003) [C1]

Haskins VK, 'Aboriginal Representations in the Ceramics of Brownie Downing and the Martin Boyd Pottery', The World of Antiques and Art, 68-72 (2000)

1998

Haskins VK, '"Lovable NativesÂ¿ and Â¿Tribal SistersÂ¿: Feminism, Maternalism, and the Campaign for Aboriginal Citizenship in New South Wales in the Late 1930s.', Hecate: an interdisciplinary journal of women's liberation, 14 8-21 (1998)

Research Supervision

Current Supervision

The Relationship between struggles for Aboriginal Liberation and the Socialist and Trade Union Movements in Australia 1917 - 1939History, Faculty of Education and ArtsPrincipal Supervisor

2014

From the Darkness of Shame to the Light of Dignity: The Impact of Transnational Feminist Activism in Creating Collective Memory of Comfort Women in JapanPolitical Science, Faculty of Business and LawCo-Supervisor

2013

Early Seamen's Missions in the British WorldHistory, Faculty of Education and ArtsPrincipal Supervisor

2011

The life and work of Reverend James Robert Beattie Love (1889 - 1947) - transforming, and being transformed by cross-cultural and cross-language relationshipsHistory, Faculty of Education and ArtsPrincipal Supervisor

News

This scholarship is open to Indigenous Australian applicants who are interested in undertaking a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) at the University of Newcastle examining an important aspect of Protection/Welfare Board history – the transition from the Protection Board era (1883 - 1940) to that of the Welfare Board (1940 - 1969).

Professor John Maynard and Associate Professor Victoria Haskins have been awarded more than $610,000 in ARC Discovery Project funding commencing in 2015 for their research project The NSW Aborigines Protection/Welfare Board 1883-1969: A History.